Team Seven Minus One
by Nomanic
Summary: In the Forest of Death something goes wrong when Orochimaru gives Sasuke the curse seal.  Dying Sasuke gives Sakura and Nauto his eyes, along with a request:  Kill my brother.
1. The End of the Beginning

"Fuck!" Naruto cursed as the blade caught him across the face, cutting into his eye. With his seal as screwed up as it was there was no way he could heal this. This wasn't going to end well if the blood running from under Sakura's hands was anything to go by.

Sasuke was down for the count because of whatever that snake freak had done to him and he wasn't getting up anytime soon. That left him and Sakura alone holding off six mist ninja by themselves.

Glancing at Sakura he could see that half of her face was covered in blood and she couldn't see the ninja trying to sneak up on her from the left.

"Sakura! Ten-o'clock!" She flipped around and managed to stab him in the neck. The remaining mist ninja did not give her time to contemplate her first kill. She spun and kicked a curved dagger out of one of her attackers hands and punched him in the throat, channeling chakra through her fist, crushing his windpipe. She went to engage the last mist nin attacking her when his eyes widened in surprise and he fell over dead with a variety of sharp pointy things sticking out of his back and a grim looking Naruto standing there.

"We're in luck. The two squads from mist had both of the scrolls we needed. Are you okay Sakura?" asked Naruto, concern showing through his one functional eye.

"No. They got one of my eyes too. Did they get at Sasuke?"

"They didn't get near him but he's not doing well" said Naruto looking over his shoulder at the tree where they stashed the third member of their team. He had been bitten by that insanely powerful freak and had collapsed soon after. "Sakura, we need to get your eye bandaged up so you don't lose anymore blood."

"Nrrrgh" Sasuke was waking up. He opened his eyes to see his blood-covered friends looking at him worriedly. They had each lost one of their eyes protecting him. That was irony any way he looked at it.

"Don't worry Sasuke everything will turn out fine" said Naruto, looking as if he so wanted to believe this statement to be true.

A sound of someone crashing through the brush kept Sasuke from answering. It was Kabuto.

"Shit! What happened to you guys!" He rushed over and started examining the mess that used to be Sakura's eye.

"Mist nins. Don't. It's useless" Sakura replied tersely.

"Relax Sakura. I'm a top-class medic despite the fact I'm still a genin."

"Then look at Sasuke. We don't know what's wrong with him" said Sakura, pulling away. He moved over to where Sasuke lay on the ground. Something had gone wrong with the curse seal he mused internally. I wasn't the black color that it should be; instead it was an angry red-orange color. There wasn't anything that he would be able to do. He doubted that even Tsunade would be able to save this boy. Orochimaru was not going to be pleased.

"Sasuke, you won't live more that five hours at this point. I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. He went to move away when Sasuke grabbed his arm.

"Can you give them my eyes?"

"Sasuke no!"

"We can't take your eyes!"

Kabuto looked thoughtfully at Sasuke's eyes and then at Sakura and Naruto.

"I can do this if that is what you wish" Kabuto said, giving him room to back out if he changed his mind. That wasn't going to happen. If he could give this gift that would help keep them alive when he couldn't be there to help them… there was no way he wouldn't do this.

"Don't refuse this. I need you to do something and I want to be able to see it. I need you to kill Itachi. I need you to kill my brother. I need you to avenge my clan because I cannot. So you will accept my eyes and you will continue on. If we hurry, we can reach the tower in five hours and you can go on. Do this for me." Sakura looked at him with cold resolution and acceptance in her eyes. Naruto looked away.

"If this is what you want Sasuke" Sakura began, "Then we will do this for you. We will accept your eyes and we will kill the one who took your family from you."

"But Sakura…"

"Shut up Naruto! This is what he wants and we are not going to disregard his last wishes!" she turned back to Sasuke, "We will show you the future."

Naruto looked Sasuke in the eye and just looked at him.

"Do it Kabuto"

"This will hurt. Sasuke I need you to activate your sharingan."

TBC

A/N-I know I just killed off one of the most important characters in the show in the first chapter but in my defense it will have mucho points in the character development department. Oh yeah! HI ANDI! I still have your jacket. When should I give that to you?


	2. Those Still Alive

A/N-Okay I know you're all thinking "What the deuce? Sasuke died! Why aren't Sakura and Naruto disqualified? Here is the answer: They made it to the tower before Sasuke bit the big one. I actually tried to write these scenes a number of times but I just wasn't feeling it so maybe later on you'll get small glimpses of what actually happened on the way to the tower.

Those Still Alive

When the other Rookie teams arrived at the tower room to receive instructions on the next test they were shocked to find Sakura and Naruto with hitai-ates covering an eye each and Sasuke curiously absent.

"Hey Forehead where's my Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked loudly. Naruto looked away and Sakura's eye focused on the floor. Shikamaru and Shino were the first to realize what had happened. Naruto answered her:

"Dead."

Sakura walked out of the room without looking up or saying anything. The color drained from Ino's face.

"What do you mean he's dead?" Kiba asked shocked. "He was the strongest of all of us!"

"How did he die?" Hinata inquired quietly.

"Uchiha Sasuke's fate is classified I'm afraid," all faces turned to the Hokage except Naruto who kept looking at that same vacant spot on the wall. "Now we will move onto the preliminaries of the third test. It will be one-on-one elimination for who will move on to the final test. Let's begin!"

Everyone moved through the doors and into the arena. Each team moved to their respective sensei. It seemed however that every team's attention was focused on Team Seven minus one. Kakashi put his hands on the shoulder's of his two remaining students, all three of them looking at the electronic scoreboard and waiting.

Zaku Abumi

vs.

Aburame Shino

Naruto watched Shino blow off the Sound boy's arms with his utmost attention because he knew if he let his thoughts wander they would lead back to...

Sakura, who probably wouldn't have noticed a few days ago, had noticed the bugs and knew Shino's plan the moment that Zaku guy had pulled out his other, supposedly useless arm.

The sickly looking chuunin declared the match:

"Winner Aburame Shino."

"Nice job Shino" Hinata softly whispered to her teammate.

Yakushi Kabuto

vs.

Kankuro

Kankuro jumped down into the arena and looked up at his opponent with a smirk.

"I forfeit."

Naruto looked at Kabuto shocked. He wasn't even going to try!

"Winner Kankuro."

What a copout. This made Kakashi suspicious. Why would someone quit after coming so far in this exam? It didn't add up. He was going to have a talk with the Hokage about this after the preliminaries concluded.

Temari

vs.

Tenten

The ex-ANBU watched with a saddened pride as Sakura explained to Naruto why this match was over before it even started just because of the different skill match up.

"That's sort of stupid though," Naruto said. Before Sakura would have just called him stupid but instead she actually paid attention to him.

"Why?"

"Well," said Naruto, "I thought we had to take this exam as a team because chuunins are put together on teams to make up for their teammates shortcomings. Like, Rock Lee would be a better match up in this case because he's so fast that her wind attacks would be ineffective and Tenten would probably be better suited to fighting her teammate because it looks like he has a short- to mid-range weapon on his back so she would be able to decimate him at a distance."

Kakashi wondered if this insightfulness was a recent development from his recently devastated team or if he just hadn't noticed before because he was to occupied teacher Sasuke to actually pay attention.

"I'm surprised you noticed Naruto," Kakashi answered. "But you will not always be on a team and you need to be able to face adversity on your own as well as be able to function as a part of team."

Crack

Tenten's back was arched over the Sand kunoichi's fan at an unnatural angle.

"Winner Temari"

Temari smirked and threw her defeated opponent at a wall. She, along with everyone else, was surprised to see a furious Rock Lee get there in time to catch his teammate.

"What's your problem! She fought her hardest and deserves to be treated better than that!" He exclaimed angrily.

"Well her best wasn't good enough. Now get that loser out of here." Temari stated haughtily.

"Jeeze," said Sakura loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Supercilious much?"

Kakashi did his curved eye smile down at Sakura and said, "Now Sakura, be nice." He paused an got a mischivious look in his eye. "If you're going to insult someone do it with words that they can understand! I'll give you and Naruto trash talking lessons later." He smiled, trying to act completely oblivious to the fact that he had just insulted the Sand Kunoichi even further.

As Temari walked off in a huff they turned their eyes to the scoreboard again.

Uzumaki Naruto

vs.

Inuzuka Kiba

A/N- Told you I wasn't dead!


	3. The Fox vs The Hound

A/N-I know I said I would update more often but I have basically been not good for a while and my messed up writing is not any good, trust me. Here's what I have right now because I left the paper with the rest of the fights to come at my dad's house. I kinda wish I had two of everything, it would make things easier. 

The Fox vs. The Hound

"Heh. Piece of cake. You're going down dead-last!" Kiba shouted, jumping into the ring. Naruto didn't say anything. He took his time and walked down the stairs. 

"Hurry up you no talent hack! Before we get old!"

Naruto just looked at Kiba, his one eye shining a dull blue. He took his place across from him and waited for the proctor.

"Ready...cough...Start!"

Kiba and Akamaru jumped back a few paces while Naruto leisurely dropped into a stance. Kiba tensed, ready to attack when Naruto reached up to uncover a scarred eyelid.

"Dude! What happened to your eye?"

Naruto lifted his eyelid to reveal a spinning sharingan.

"It was a parting gift."

Naruto used Kiba's momentary shock to rush past him and take out Akamaru.

"No! Akamaru! I'll kill you!" Kiba yelled and rushed the blond. He launched a punch at Naruto's face but it almost seemed like Naruto could predict Kiba's moves before he made them and he always seemed to know just where to punch through his guard.

"What did you do? Kill Sasuke for his eyes? You wouldn't do nearly as well without that stupid eye!" Kiba shouted flipping back toward the other end of the arena.

"It was a gift. One that I would gladly trade if it meant he were still alive. It would do him a dishonor if I were not to show him me kicking your ass!"

Charging across the room, Naruto suddenly split into four and fanned out around Kiba and kept multiplying until it looked like a wall of solid orange was spinning around him. Then all the Narutos started to throw kunai at him. Every time Kiba would try to jump out of the circle an orange blur would knock him back in until Kiba looked like a pincushion. Then in a cloud of smoke Naruto was covering his eye back up and Kiba was unconscious on the floor.

"Winner Uzumaki Naruto."

Hinata rushed past him down the stairs not even sparing him a glance on her way to her fallen teammate. Naruto just leaned against the railing next to Sakura.

"Nice job Naruto."

"Thanks Sakura."

"That was a very good plan Naruto. What made you take out the dog first?" asked Kakashi looking down at his normally loud student.

"The dog was a wild card. I had a vague idea of Kiba's abilities but he was never allowed to use Akamaru in any of the academy spars and I didn't want to be caught off-guard by it."

"But Kiba became enraged after you took out Akamaru so wasn't that a little counterproductive?" asked Sakura.

"No. I was counting on him becoming upset." Naruto said as he watched the medics carry Kiba out of the arena on a stretcher. "An angry opponent is a sloppy opponent," he paused. "Sasuke used to do it to me all the time."

The scoreboard whirred to life.

"Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino."

A/N-I used to get annoyed at cliffhangers until I figured out that a lot of the authors don't know what's coming next either. Or it could just be me...


	4. Welcome To My World

**HEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYY!!** : Okay, now that I've got your attention here are my thoughts on the Sharingan. It not only predicts movement, copies moves and blah blah blah, but in my story it also improves your perception and comprehension even when it's not activated or uncovered. My reason for this extra ability is because at this point Sakura does not have the chakra capacity necessary to use the Sharingan productively and it would be totally lame if Ino kicked her ass because of it.

**Welcome to My World**

"Go get her Sakura."

Sakura jumped down into the arena across from Ino. The proctor looked curiously between the two of them at the unexpected animosity between members of the same village before the fight had even started.

"Get ready to lose Forehead girl!"

Sakura didn't get angry or respond with the angry shout of "Ino-Pig!" that everyone had been expecting. There was just silence and a calculating look in her eye that Ino had never seen before. She took it as a sign to get serious because this was not one of their stupid, childish squabbles over boys. She tied her hitai-ate around her head where it belonged. This was a fight that neither looked ready to lose.

"Begin."

Ino didn't waste any time trying to punch Sakura in the face. Sakura ducked under her outstretched arm and rammed her shoulder into Ino's gut. Ino, not one to pass up any advantage, grabbed Sakura by her long pink hair and flipped her over her head and slammed her into the ground.

"Cheap shot!" shouted Naruto from the balcony.

Distracted for a few seconds, Ino didn't notice Sakura pull out a kunai and pull it through her hair to free herself. She danced away from Ino and fell into a ready stance a good eight feet away.

Ino looked shocked at the pink strands of hair held in her fist.

"You grew out your hair for Sasuke..."

"Sasuke is not here anymore. Nothing will hold me back from my mission."

"What mission?"

Flashback (Oh Yuck. I cannot believe I'm using such an overused plot device. T-T)

They were rushing through the trees with Sasuke slumped on Naruto's back as they ran toward the tower at the center of this forest of death. He was still alive, but barely. They needed to get to the finish before he... you know. They didn't want him to die in vain in a stupid contest of strength. They just had to make it to the tower alive.

"Sakura, come here." She moved closer to Naruto and Sasuke so she could hear him.

"Right here Sasuke," she said. He turned his bandaged head in her direction.

"Uchiha Itachi, my brother, is an S-class missing nin from our village. He killed off our entire clan and then he just left. He has unlocked the highest level of the Sharingan, the Mangekyou. When we get the tower I want you and Naruto to kill me."

"What!?" Naruto had only made his first real kill a couple of hours ago, no way did he think he had it in him to kill his best friend.

"You have to if you want to be anywhere near his level! When you reach the third tomoe, you need to be able to activate the Mangekyou yourselves and there is only one way to do that."

"What does that have to do with killing you?!"

"There is only one way to achieve the Mangekyou Sharingan. You have to kill your best friend."

"We won't fail you Sasuke. We'll avenge your clan," started Sakura.

"And then we'll avenge you," ended Naruto.

They surprisingly made it to the tower unhindered. They were met by a surprised, purple-haired jonin. She didn't stop them from killing Sasuke when she saw the seal on his neck.

"You two pass as you were all alive when you got here, but I'm going to have to ask you some questions about where he got that curse seal."

End stupid cliché plot device

"To kill a certain man."

"Fine then!" Ino threw Sakura's hair to the ground between them. "But your mission will have to wait because I won't lose to you!" The blond put her hands up in a hand seal unique to her family.

"Nice try Ino, but you have to catch me first."

Ino smiled a mean smile. "I already have." It was true. She had fed her chakra through Sakura's hair and used it to tie her in place.

"Oh shi..." Both Sakura and Ino slumped. After a moment, Ino fell to the ground seizing and Sakura... Well Sakura saw what had happened to Ino and went unbelievably pale.

What Happened

Ino awoke on a black field with dark dead trees scattered around. An ominous red sky hung overhead. This was definitely not the arena she had been fighting Sakura in.

"You shouldn't be here," came a voice, seemingly from no where.

Ino spun around to find herself face to face with no one. The voice called out again.

"You don't belong here."

She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, or even if it was male or female. She couldn't see anyone around her. As far as she could tell it was just her and the blood red moon in this creepy, little world. "Hello?"

"What the hell?" asked Sakura as she faded into existence a few feet away from her rival.

"Sakura… What's going on?"

"You're an idiot. This is all your fault." A second, more aggressive looking Sakura faded in next to the first Sakura. "You've inadvertently activated a jutsu we won't be able to use for a few years at least."

"Are you that voice from before?" asked Ino.

"No," answered Inner Sakura.

"Why do you look just like me and how do you _know_ all of this?" asked the first Sakura.

"I'm you," the second Sakura answered. "There was something long ago that you couldn't deal with, so you became us."

"Hey! My dad told me about stuff like this! When someone suffers a great trauma sometimes his or her mind will split. This is totally not good…" Ino trailed off.

"No kidding!" groaned the first Sakura, throwing an arm over her face. "Not even thirteen and one of my best friends is dead and I have a mental illness!"

"That's not the problem just now. Sakura, you'll be fine, but Ino won't be. Ino you accidentally activated a jutsu that Sakura doesn't have the chakra capacity to use yet. You are trapped in this world of her creation for seventy-two hours but only a few seconds will pass in the real world. Your brain is going to overload from every thought you have in here hitting you all at once," explained Inner Sakura.

"Oh man! I'm gonna lose!"

"Ino! Try and cancel the jutsu!" Sakura commanded.

Ino's hands formed her family's signature seal and the red world faded around her and all she knew was the screaming pain in her head and then blackness.

A/N- Yeah, I rewrote this chapter because I wasn't happy with the one that I first posted. It kind of sucked. The utter lameness of it shocked me when I read it later. I don't have any excuse for not updating sooner besides that I was lazy and didn't feel like. That's not what makes me a bad person. What makes me a bad person is that I acknowledge my personality flaws and have no desire to try and fix them. You can review, but only if you're not an asshole about it.


End file.
